Friday, March 29, 2013

Per USPS tracking, my sweater's buttons are theoretically somewhere between Maine and here. Or else they are still in Maine. Waiting. Just like me.

So I've made more dishcloths.

And yes, those are in addition to the ones I have already made. Plus another one that isn't as attractively photographed so I'm not posting it here.

Anyway, I've basically killed off all of my stash of kitchen-worthy cotton (I have other cotton yarns but they are much too lovely for using for a dishcloth or potholder). So my waiting has been productive, at least. Because now I have more room for pretty things.

Which is good. Because next month is the DFW Fiber Fest. Oh yeah. I've checked out the vendor list and I've already given myself permission to blow my month's discretionary budget so I'm gonna need the room.

Monday, March 25, 2013

I am still waiting impatiently for my buttons to arrive. While I'm waiting, I've decided to not start another big project, so I've been burning through some of my old cotton yarns making more kitchen-related things. I've made another dishcloth and a couple of potholders.

It's all very exciting. Okay, maybe not that exciting. But it is something to do while waiting for buttons.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

I've been impatiently waiting on my sweater to dry so I can try it on to see if the sleeves need to be reknit. It's a thick yarns so it's drying slowly. Checking it every two hours is not speeding it up.

So I decided to distract myself by knitting something else.

It's just a dishrag but it was a great project to kill a few hours - both to keep me from checking on my sweater and to occupy my hands on a trip to my parents' house.

I have, as you can see, already used it. It's fabulous - nubby and thick and super scrubby. I like it!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Well, sort of. It's in the back room drying right now and I do have to weave end the ends. Normally I do that before blocking, but I have this fear that the sweater will lengthen after blocking, making the sleeves too long. If that's the case, I'll have to rip back and reknit them to the proper length. I could just be looking for trouble with that thought, though. Mostly because this sweater turned out not the be the super easy project I anticipated.

Part of that less-than-super-easy bit was the pattern itself. The arm started way high. If I had followed the pattern as written, I would have made an article of clothing that would double as a way to slowly saw my arms away from my body. So there was some adaptation-related math there (which I was hoping to avoid after my last math-heavy adapted sweater). Then, it ended up too short, too. It just looked... frumpy. So I needed to lengthen the sweater and also wanted make the sleeves full-length. (I love my first sweater and wear it quite often but sometimes my wrists get cold.)

Anyway, the desire for a longer length meant my yarn was going to run tight. Which was where most of the stress from this sweater came from. I've spent the last two days thinking, "I hope I have enough yarn. Please let me have enough yarn" with every stitch. Because of this, I ended up doing the sleeves, ripping them back some (too short), adding length to the back, doing most of the sleeves except the border, doing the collar, then going back to the sleeves. I even ended up having to weigh my yarn at the end to see if I could get all ten rounds of the border in for the sleeves (I couldn't. I got nine.) But I got it all done and yes, I had enough yarn.

Barely.

Yes, that little squish of yarn is all of the leftover I have from my seven skeins. It's about a yard and a half - just enough to use to sew some buttons on (once I get them in the mail). Notice that it is all crinkly? Yeah, I had to rip out my gauge swatch to finish up the sleeves!

But everything seems to have worked! And I must say, the yarn is lovely. It's Plymouth Yarn Royal Llama Silk - a 60% llama 40% silk blend and it feels so soft and cuddly! It's really warm, too - this is totally a winter sweater. But I loved knitting with the yarn. Hopefully I'll enjoy wearing the sweater just as much!

Friday, March 15, 2013

I'm afraid ONK (outdoor neighbor kitty) is now pregnant. Her tummy is a bit rounder than normal and feels fairly solid. But the thing that really makes me think there are impending kittens is the fact that her tummy and nipples are a bit lumpy and swollen. Like she's getting ready to make milk. Sigh.

Fortunately, the weather has turned nicer so we haven't been worried about her being outside at night, thus we are keeping our garage closed. Which means chances are low that she will have her kittens in our garage. Because while I want to steal the neighbor's cat, I don't want to be responsible for another litter of kittens. I still remember when Gidget's babies grew big enough to get into the tub. They had a grand ole time in there and it would sound like a bowling ball was being rolled up and down the tub's length. They especially liked to play in there at three in the morning.

But back to ONK. Dan spoke to the neighbor dad a couple of weeks ago and while the dad doesn't really care for the cat, the mother and son love and care for her. Knowing that, we've been less tempted to steal the neighbor kitty (since we know they'd actually miss her). But now we are a bit sad knowing that there is yet another litter of most likely unplanned (and unwanted) kittens about to come into the world.

Also, ONK heavily shies away from hands now. She's been developing the hand shyness the past few months but today it was really severe - she would barely let me touch her at first. Though as soon as I sat on the ground she crawled into my lap and then had no problem with pets. But it makes me sad to think of what has made her that cautious and hesitant.

See, this is why we have six cats (and have had up to eight at once). I'm a huge softie! Must stay firm when kitten appear, though. Must. Stay. Firm.

It was quite a bit different from our outing to the Kessler a couple of weeks ago. Standing room only, for one thing, and I'm pretty sure there was a high school field trip there too. But the main difference was the volume. The Kessler wasn't exactly quiet, but OMG, last night was loud. My ears felt stuffy for a good two hours afterwards.

The music and the band were both good (well, the opening act had a few not-good moments but excluding those few songs) and I enjoyed listening. But it did bring up the problem I have with live music - I don't know what to do. I liked listening and enjoyed the music, but live music just tends to not occupy my mind enough and I get distracted and a bit fidgety. (It's the same reason I can't listen to audiobooks except when driving (or sometimes knitting). Any other time and my mind starts wandering and I realize I haven't heard anything. If I am doing something else (driving), my mind is occupied and I can actually listen.) Last night wasn't like that the whole night, but after about 45 minutes or so, I wished I had brought my knitting.

Yes, I am posting about a concert saying it was too loud and I wish I had brought my knitting. I realize this means that I am old. (But don't worry, the high school contingent at the concert last night had already clued me in to that fact.)

Friday, March 1, 2013

Look! It's a post about a non-knitting happening! Yeah, I've been very knitting-focused lately but that's because I've been knitting a lot. But while there was some knitting yesterday, that was not the big thing. (Also, a preemptive apology for the horrible quality of the media in this post. Gotta love cell phones!)

Last night, Dan and I went out to the hipster section of Dallas and eventing occurred! First, we went to Bolsa. It's a non-huge and fairly casual restaurant but the food... They have a limited and rotating menu and their ingredients are organic and local and all that other hippie goodness. I had quail over braised collards and mashed sweet potatoes and OMG, I must learn how to cook collards like that. (Of course, my entire entree was wonderful but the collards were mind-blowing. Please note I'm saying that about collards so that should give you an indication of the yum of this place.) Dan had a beet mushroom risotto that was just perfect and dessert included a magazine-worthy walnut pear tart. Totally delicious and definitely somewhere we want to go again. But that wasn't the coolest thing.

After dinner, Dan and I went to the Kessler.

It's this small but neat old theatre that's been turned into, basically, a listening room. Which is why we went there, because our favorite artist, Mike Doughty, was performing.

It was an awesome show. It did start a little late because Mike was involved in a car accident on his way to the theatre. Apparently there was a mattress set on the highway and he hit it, then got rear ended. So I can't imagine he was feeling all that great during the show but you totally couldn't tell. Seriously awesome. And this is coming from someone that doesn't really enjoy live music when I know the songs. So yeah, thumbs up all around.